Afghanistan as the "Saudi Arabia of Lithium"

An NYT story titled U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan includes the text:

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

Of lithium as a high energy density component of battery anodes, note the following posts on IPBiz:

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2010/03/mit-tech-rev-boosting-battery-re.html

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2009/11/taking-ride-in-tesla-roadster.html


SSI-17

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2009/06/lithium-batteries-for-cars.html